I was pretty shocked by the low reviews too. I do think you will enjoy the game, Susan - I think the MCF series is open to harsher criticism because folks have such high and varied expectations for each game. I thought it was a fun game and I will play it again in a few months.

You and I seem to enjoy the same games so, if you enjoyed "MCF: Shadow Lake", I probably will as well. I picked up 2 other CEs in the sale, so I'll have to flip a coin to see which one I'm gonna play first !

I like what I played of the game, but I think it would have benefited from an intermediate level of difficulty; the casual mode seemed too easy and the hard mode seemed too difficult. I will probably pick it up during a CE sale.

You touched upon one of the things I really didn't like about the game ()besides not being able to random click). I always play in casual mode because I like to relax while playing and sometimes take advantage of the "Skip" option for puzzles. The casual mode of "Beast" just doesn't take you by the hand. It hits you over the head with a sledgehammer ! I may use one of my coupons to pick up the SE when it's released, but I took a pass on the CE.